SEPULCHRAL MOUND 



SEQUOIA 



319 



the evangelists and apostles spoke and wrote it. 

 Thus the LXX is the key to the language of the 

 New Testament. This fact is only now begin- 

 ning to be duly appreciated. The great mistake 

 of New Testament students has been to assume 

 that the language of the New Testament is essen- 

 tially that of classical Greek. It is never safe to 

 assume that a word in the New Testament has 

 its classical meaning. It is nearly always safe to 

 ;i-Mitnc that it has the meaning which it bears in 

 the LXX. 



The principal MSS. of the LXX. are the Alex- 

 andrian codex in the British Museum, the Vatican 

 codex in Rome, and the Sinaitic (defective) in St 

 Petersburg. The chief editions are the Complu- 

 tensian (1514-17), the Aldine (Venice, 1518), the 

 Sixtine (Rome, 1587). Reineccius (Leip. 1730), 

 Parsons and Holmes (Oxford, 1798-1827), Tischen- 

 dorf (Leip. 1850), Swete (Cambridge, vols. i. and 

 ii., 1887-91). Important contributions have been 

 made to the study of the LXX. in recent years by 

 Lagarde, Wellhausen, Hatch, and others. Much, 

 however, remains to be done before a satisfactory 

 critical edition can be produced. 



The Old Testament Apocrypha (q.v.) consists of books 

 and parts of books in the LXX., and not included in 

 our Hebrew Bibles. For other versions of the Hebrew, 

 gee BIBLE (VoL II. p. 122). AQDILA, HEXAPLA, ORIGEN, 

 POLYGLOT. The fimt part of a Concordance to the 

 LXX., by Hatch and Redpath, appeared in 1891. 



Sepulchral Mound. See BARROW, BURIAL, 

 CAIRN. 



Sepulveda, -Ir \\ GINES, a Spanish historian, 

 was born at Pozo-blanco, in the neighbourhood of 

 Cordova, about 1490, studied first at Cordova and 

 Alcala de Henares, and went to Bologna in 1515, 

 where and at Rome he became acquainted with the 

 most celebrated savants of Italy and Spain. In 

 1536 he returned to Spain as historiographer to 

 Charles V. and preceptor to his son, afterwards 

 Philip II. After living successively in Valladolid, 

 Cordova, and Madrid, he. was made a canon of 

 Salamanca. In that town he died on 23d Novem- 

 ber 1574. He won a reputation as the champion 

 of humanism against the prevailing scholasti- 

 cism. His principal work is entitled Historia 

 Caroli V., published with a biography and Sepul- 

 veda's other works by the Madrid Academy in 

 4 vols. in 1780. His other works include a Life 

 of AllKirnoz, a History of the Reign of Philip II., 

 and a History of Spain in the New World. 



Soquard. See BROWN-SEQUARD. 



Sequence. See HYMN, Vol. VI. p. 46. 



Sequestration, the Scotch legal term for 

 Bankruptcy (q.v.). In English law sequestration 

 is a prerogative form of process, by which com- 

 missioners are empowered to take possession of the 

 property of a person who is in contempt. There is 

 also a special form of sequestration issued against 

 a clergyman, by which the bishop is commanded to 

 sequester the profits of the debtor's benefice to 

 answer the plaintiff's claim. On sequestration the 

 bishop is required to appoint a curate and assign 

 him a stipend. 



Sequin ( Ital. zecchino, from zecca, the name of 

 the Venetian mint), a gold coin of Venice, equiv- 

 alent to the gold Ducat (q.v.). 



Sequoia, a small genus (two species) of ever- 

 green coniferous trees Belonging to California. S. 

 giyanlea, better known in Britain as Wellingtonia, 

 in other countries as Washingtonia and Giqantaliies, 

 is the 'Mammoth Tree' of California. Sequoia is 

 " Latinised form of the name of the famous 

 Oherokee chief, Sequoyah (see CHEROKEES). The 

 mammoth tree, which is surpassed in height only 

 rijr the Eucalyptus (q.v.) of Australia, was dis- 

 covered by Douglas in 1831, though its existence 



Fig. 1. ftrqiioiu ijiyanteatbe 

 ' Three Graces.' 



was recorded by Menzies in 1796 ; it was intro- 

 duced into Britain in 1853 by Lobb. The tree, 

 though found at elevations varying from 4000 to 

 7000 feet above sea-level, affects only sheltered 

 valleys, in which 

 it occurs in groves 

 intermixed with 

 other trees. The 

 most remarkable 

 of these groves 

 is in Calaveras 

 county ; only less 

 remarkable is that 

 of Mariposa near 

 the Yosemite Val- 

 ley. The 'Mam- 

 moth Grove ' of 

 Calaveras consists 

 of from 90 to 100 

 trees of gigantic 

 proportions. One 

 of the most not- 

 able is named 

 ' Mother of the 

 Forest. ' It rises 

 to the height of 

 327 feet, but is 

 dead and barkless, 

 though it girths 

 75 feet near the 

 base. The bark, 

 about 18 inches 

 thick, was re- 

 moved in sections 

 by Mr G. L. Trask 

 to the height of 116 

 feet (causing the 

 death of the tree), and fitted up as it came from the 

 tree in the Crystal Palace, Syaenham, to illustrate 

 the proportions of the mammoth tree ; this erection 

 was destroyed by fire in 1866. Near by the ' Mother ' 

 lies prostrate the trunk of the ' Father of the Forest,' 

 which girths at the ground 110 feet. In falling the 

 trunk had broken over at the height of 300 feet. 

 At that point the girth is 40 feet, and taking the 

 average taper of the surrounding trees, this dead 

 giant may reasonably be computed to have ex- 

 ceeded 400 feet at the time of its fall. Inside the 

 fallen trunk there is a tunnel 35 feet long, and from 

 8 to 10 feet high. The ' Pioneer's Cabin,' a cavity 

 in the trunk of another giant in this grove, is 

 large enough to accommodate a numerous party 

 at dinner. The ' Three Graces ' (see fig. 1 ), growing 

 within a few feet of each other, became famous for 

 their symmetry and beauty ; they attain almost 

 equally to the height of 265 feet. The age of 

 these larger specimens is variously estimated at 

 from 2000 to 3000 years ; such estimates, however, 

 based as they are on the enumeration of the con- 

 centric rings of the trunk, are not to be implicitly 

 relied upon, particularly in the case of evergreen 

 trees. The timber of the mammoth tree is reddish 

 in colour when matured, non-resinous, and in- 

 odorous, the fibre short, porous, and brittle; it is 

 not regarded as durable. In Britain, when planted 

 in rich alluvial soil in well-sheltered positions, it is 

 found to rival the Larch or any of the more rapid 

 growing timber-trees in the production of timber in 

 a given time. The tree is hardy enough to resist 

 the severest frost likely ever to be experienced in 

 Britain, but will not endure wind, especially that 

 from the north and east. There are several varieties 

 in commerce, the result of cultivation viz. S. g. 

 riendula and S. g. aurea, which cannot be said to 

 be in either case improvements on the faultless 

 cone-like symmetry of growth which characterises 

 the typical form. 8. sempervirens, the other species, 

 is the Redwood or Bastard-tree of the Californian 



